Should Mbappe really go to Madrid this summer?
With Real Madrid having sold a series of players to raise an impressive amount of money, and strategic leaks about their pursuit of Kylian Mbappe increasing, it does feel like the 18-year-old Monaco star’s path to the Bernabeu is beginning to clear - but one thing about it all remains unclear. Would it actually be right for such a talent to go to such a club now?
Would that environment be the best thing for his future, at this stage of his development?
A still-maturing - if still-magnificent - teenager would be leaving the kind of circumstances at Monaco that seem almost perfect for his growth, given it’s regular football in a lower-pressure league but still offering
experience of the Champions League, for one of the two most intense clubs in football history. There is nothing like the cauldrons of the Bernabeu or Camp Nou, and they can singe a few careers if you go there at the wrong time, as another former Monaco star in James Rodriguez arguably proves.
There can be absolutely no doubt Mbappe is one of the surest of ‘sure things’ that Real Madrid are essentially investing in, banking on his impossibly bright future. Manchester United did similar with an 18year-old Wayne Rooney in 2004 and there are so many similar cases, but the key difference is that Sir Alex Ferguson had planned to make the bullish young star the main focal point of his attack right away. There has already been a lot of talk from Madrid about how Real plan to get Mbappe to get used to the idea of sharing pitch-time with the established trio of Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema, with their chemistry already having been affected by the explosive form of Isco. That is obviously natural and right given that the side have just achieved something historic in retaining the Champions League, but it only deepens the question over whether it is the right and natural move for an 18-year-old talent. Should he be checking himself in that way, even though Real would notionally take up to a higher level?
Shouldn’t he be someone just expressing himself now, just allowed to release that talent at this age without unnecessary extra pressures and restraints?
For their part, Real - and Zinedine Zidane, in what has been one of his best pieces of management - have become much better at general squad management, of keeping what is a big pool of players happy. Part of Ronaldo’s supreme form at the age of 32 has been down to the French coach’s ability to get him to see the value of resting more; of keeping himself fresher.
Real would of course be following the trend of their history, going right back to the star-filled medal-laden side of the 1950s, of looking to have a top player ready to come on. Mbappe is also planned to be Ronaldo’s eventual successor, to be the face of the side - and its potent force.
It’s just that will almost inevitably happen anyway, without the need for him to go there now. He can still be the main man as a mere teenager at another club now - or even keep reaching higher levels at Monaco. He has that potential, but it should be allowed to fully flourish.
That potential is precisely why Real are willing to absolutely demolish the world transfer record, in a move that would bring what has already been an eventful summer to a peak - but is it right to bring this
exceptional talent to a peak?
He has barely even been a starting player for a year, and it feels like a little rushed. Real, however, have never really been a club willing to wait.